Reynoldsburg says goodbye to Flock Safety cameras

Our Take

Credit to WSYX ABC 6 for covering a story that deserves way more airtime: a city government actually reversing course on Flock Safety. Reynoldsburg didn't just quietly let a contract lapse — officials deactivated the cameras amid public backlash over privacy and documented misuse. That's a rare and important data point in the national debate over whether these networks belong on our streets at all.

This matters because the usual script is one-directional: a city council approves ALPRs with little scrutiny, the vendor promises crime-fighting miracles, and the cameras stay up indefinitely while scope creep sets in — more cameras, more data sharing, more agencies with access. Reynoldsburg shows that script can be broken when residents push back hard enough on the actual record of how this surveillance gets used, not just the sales pitch. Every city weighing a Flock contract should be looking at towns that said "no more," not just the ones that said yes.

If you want to see whether Flock or similar ALPR systems are already watching your own neighborhood, check our camera map, and if you'd rather your city follow Reynoldsburg's lead than expand its surveillance footprint, our take-action page has concrete steps for making that case to local officials.